The napkins here are a finished size of 15″, and you need an inch of seam allowance, so we cut 17″ squares. But, you can make them any size you want! Just do the math! Yeah, sorry about math.

Also, please pre-wash and dry your fabric so Mom doesn’t have to line dry them every time.

1.) Cut your pre-washed fabric into 4 17″ squares.

2.) Here is the mitered corner trick! Fold over the corner so the middle of the triangle measures 1.5″ as shown.

3.) Now, fold the point of the triangle back down until it is touching the fold. Now place a pin right down the middle to hold it into place. Do this on all 4 corners!

4.) Fold long one edge of your napkin down to touch the folded edge of your little corner. Press it all the way across.

5.) Then, fold it down again, matching the folded edge with your pin right down the middle! Pin into place and press.

6.) When you repeat this with the other side, the folded edges should match the miter perfectly! Pin and press.

7.) Topstitch near the edges all the way around. I like to topstitch on the front side (the bobbin thread looks different from the top thread on most machines), so I just made sure that my needle was inside the 1/2″ fold on the backside so I caught it.

Notice in the picture above I used a double needle! Ever wondered what that little extra spindle is that comes with the extra feet and such? Stick it in the hole at the top of your machine, put thread on it, thread BOTH spools together like normal, then separate each into its own needle, and WHAMMO! Double needle!

And DONE!

Take mom out for dinner and wipe the butter from the crab off her chin with her brand new napkins! That’s what I’m gonna do, anyway.

A super simple, breezy, spring shift dress, and versatile enough for pretty much any fabric.  Colette is hosting a contest with TONS of prizes, including $100 to shop at Fabric Bliss!!

All you have to do is swing into Fabric Bliss (or grab it here at the Fabric Bliss Online Store), pick up your very own Colette Laurel pattern, make up your OWN interpretation with whatever fabric you want, and upload it to their Flickr group!  All of the details can be found here at The Laurel Sewing Contest.

The contest goes from NOW until April 30th, so GET SEWING!!!!

*running for the fabric bolts*

We decorated the shop a little today with some fun chalk-cloth bunting!

I ordered a set of colored chalk pens from Amazon (found here) and made Tami use her much prettier handwriting to make the signs.  We pinked the edge of each chalk-cloth piece, made 2 slits in the top with a seam ripper, and slid in some extra-wide bias tape as the string!  SUPER easy, SUPER fast, and SUPER cheap!  And, super CUTE, right??

Come in and get a treat and 15% off anything GREEN today to celebrate our birthday!  Oh, and St. Patrick’s Day, too, but we know which is more important.

Below is a short little tutorial on how to make these for your very own kitchen and bath.

SUPPLIES:
1/2 Yard Fabric cut on the fold to make 2 18″ x 22″ squares (this is also the size of a fat quarter if you just want to make one!)
1/2 Yard Terrycloth (Yes, we have this in the shop!)
6″ Ribbon

These are so cute, and they work great, too!  Thanks, Jackie!!

Erin, a Fabric Bliss customer, took the Intro to Crochet class before her wedding this summer, and took her crochet to the wedding!!

She started chaining, and slipped buttons onto the yarn, and hooked them into the chain as she went.  She even incorporated the buttons into the groom’s boutonniere!

Incredibly creative.  Adds that PERFECT handmade touch. Love!

Remember my tutorial about the Bow Ties? Well, I had to make a BUNCH of them, and fusing them with an iron sometimes is just not very efficient.

Enter the Steam Press Iron!

I put my pieces of interfacing with the glue side UP (this is important, people), then put the WRONG side of the bow tie down on top of it.  See?  4 at a time. All this puppy needs is 10 seconds, and you are FUSED.

Side note: I made a friend the Amy Butler Modern Diaper Bag (blog about THAT to come!), and it usually takes me about 4 hours to fuse all of the several layers of interfacing to the bags, since a standard iron has a super small surface area.  Ready for this?!? I fused the ENTIRE BAG on this in 30 minutes. *jaw drop*

This guy is here in the studio, and is part of the $7 an hour fee to rent studio time.

Friends don’t let friends fuse on a normal iron. GET IN HERE!

A customer of mine took the Ultra Soft Baby Blanket class to learn how to work with Minkee. They are super cute:

She had a winter wedding, and was stumped as to what to make her bridesmaids for a gift. Since they were all in evening-wear AND it was freezing, she took a cue from class and made these little numbers:

Is this not the BEST idea?! Made with Minkee even, so they were soft and warm!

Brilliant! Just wish I have thought of it. *kicking self*

I got my wallet stolen last year on Christmas Eve.  Merry Christmas to me! Now, my bank is rad, and it all turned out OK, but I searched and searched and searched for a wallet to replace my fabulous Fossil one that I had for ages.

Insert sobbing here.

So, since I couldn’t find one I loved, I decided to make one. But couldn’t find a pattern I liked.  MORE sobbing. So I made one up, and here she blows:

Id’n'it cute?! And, looks adorable in bunches of different fabrics, too:

I have beat the crap out of the one pictured since December, and it barely even looks used, right?! Oilcloth holds up so great!

So, you can either take the Oilcloth Wallet Class if you need to learn how to sew with this stuff, OR, you can buy the Oilcloth Wallet Pattern available for download (via email, until I figure the techie-geek part out on the shopping cart) for $5.99.

Everyone I know is getting one of these for Christmas. Woo!

Here is the groom’s bowtie from a wedding this summer:

Here is the one for his dog (although I turned it around to get a better picture, so now it looks like a bow):

Here are the bow ties I made for a wedding last year:

And, one for Sy for the holidays!

Since these are so IN right now, thought I would give you a tutorial on how I make them!

Bow Tie Tutorial

First, print out the bow tie template here. Tape them together using the marked overlap. This size seems to fit most people, but its easy to add extra if you need it a bit longer.

1.) Use your pattern piece to cut out 4 bow ties from your fabric. Then, cut out just enough fusible interfacing (my fave is Pellon ES114 or 931TD) to cover the bow tie piece, and NOT the neck piece.  It’s way too difficult to turn it inside out like that; plus, all of that is under the shirt collar, and doesn’t need to be super crisp.

2.) Take 2 pieces and put them right sides together. Mark a hole for turning inside out. This is the best place to put it; at the thin end, you smash your bow all up getting it through. Starting at one pin, sew with a 1/4″ seam all the way around, stopping at the other pin.

3.) Clip the curves bowing outward, and pizza-slice the seams turning inward. Grade the corners of the ends of the bow tie as well, as shown. This will give you smooth curves and sharp points!

4.) Turn them inside out, push out all the corners and curves, press the you-know-what out of them, then hand stitch the hole closed. I do this little stitch that runs under the fold of the fabric on one side. Then, right where it comes out of one side, I insert it into the other side, run under that fold for about 1/4″, then pop out, and back over to the other side. This makes your seam invisible. NOTE: No idea what this is called – someone leave me a comment with the name of it!

5.) Hang them on a cute chair and take a photo. I really have no explanation for this photo aside from it is cute.

6.) Sew about 2 inches of velcro to each end. Yes yes, this is cheating a bit, but the groom does NOT want to fumble with this bow tie 10 minutes before the ceremony.  He still has to TIE it, so he gets the full experience, but this way he can do it nicely the night before. And the velcro is under the collar, so no one will ever know!

Yay!  Now GIT TO WORK!

This pattern comes in the Sew It All Volume 4 magazine, and it is SUPER EASY to make.  Especially since we love you and cut the ruffles in ready-made Bliss rolls for you.

Did I mention that I am in a photo in the magazine with this lovely skirt?

I went through each magazine in my shop and put the little annoying subscription card right on this page so you could open right up to my photo.  Just kidding.  I didn’t do that.  OK, maybe I did.

Come get yours, while supplies last!